


Caught in Her Gravity

by cosmosatyrus



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-08-26
Updated: 2009-08-26
Packaged: 2017-10-27 15:52:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/297520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmosatyrus/pseuds/cosmosatyrus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three times Pavel A. Chekov met the daughter of Dr. Leonard McCoy. Bear with me on this one. The plot bunny kind of attacked my brain like a terrier. Not my usual pairing, but there you have it. Special thanks to kadollan for the beta.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Caught in Her Gravity

The first time they met, she was nine and he was seventeen. _Cute,_ he thought, _like a little kitty-cat, but one that bites._ They'd just returned from the Narada incident and it seemed she would never let go of her father, not even to hurl curses at Kirk, who took the whole thing in stride. The (acting) captain just smiled and tousled her hair, which she obviously hated. Chekov sympathized.

"And this is Ensign Chekov," McCoy showed her to every member of the bridge crew as well as the entirety of his medical team. She was his world, his whole planet, and they clung to each other like binary stars.

She looked him over with guarded curiosity. "Howdy." 

"Ensign Chekov, Pavel Andreievich." He extended his hand and she shook it, very serious. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss..."

"Jo. It's short for Joanna." She then said something he didn't understand to her father, her accent both chopping up and stretching out words in a way he couldn't quite comprehend.

He smiled. This cute little biting kitty-cat had approved his existence and not Kirk's. For some inexplicable reason, this meant more to him than any Starfleet commendation in the known universe. "Glad to meet you." She acknowledged and then they were gone again, this time to Lieutenant Uhura who gushed and cooed over her. She scowled and again, Chekov sympathized.

\---

At fourteen, Jo McCoy was slender and gangly, all spindly legs and hair that didn't seem to want to stay in place. Chekov remembered himself at that age and his first Starfleet haircut. For once in his life, it hadn't been an ordeal to comb and he was grateful. _But girls should have long hair_. He knew it was sexist of him to think so, but he liked girls to have long hair. "It is a pleasure to see you again, Miss Jo. You have become vwery tall." She was still cute, still serious, still like a kitty-cat that would just as soon bite your hand as let you scratch her head. He resisted the urge to scratch the kid behind the ears and tell her how adorable she was. Fourteen hadn't been that long ago and he remembered how the older cadets treated him then. Hardly anyone took him seriously until his first few days on the Enterprise.

Even then, the senior McCoy had his doubts. He remembered that very clearly. "Oh, good, he's _seventeen_ ," the Doctor had said. "Seventeen," as though his age was indicative of his ability. He'd said Jo was smart, that she'd skipped grades, took advanced courses in Xenobiology and mathematics, and was skilled in multiple styles of martial arts. This kid was to be taken seriously because, if the Doctor was to be believed, she'd use those brains to take over the Federation when she grew up. So he shook her hand and spoke to her as only his professors had when he was that age.

"Yeah, well, I was nine. Congratulations on your Lieutenant stripes." She gave him a firm handshake and a nod, which he returned in kind.

"Thank you, Miss Jo. Congratulations on your scholarship." The doctor had told him everything about her, how she wanted to study diseases in the far reaches of space, that she'd been accepted to a private school in Brazil where she could learn at a faster pace than the other kids her age. Perhaps she was a kindred spirit, of sorts. He, too, had gone from his home at a young age and he could respect a kid that had the courage to go to a foreign country in search of more knowledge. He'd cried his first night away from his mama, but he had a feeling that the young Miss McCoy would not. A kid like that was worthy of respect.

"Thanks. Hey, Daddy, can we go out to eat when this is over?" After five years of working with Dr. McCoy, he'd begun to understand the nuances of her particular accent, the way she extended vowels and left out entire syllables. He wondered if she'd have the same problems with Portuguese that he'd had with English and he wished her good luck without saying it.

"Sure, darlin', let's go see if the Captain wants to come with." The doctor had his hand on her shoulder and she was still his everything. They were like the Earth and the moon, locked in a mutual orbit as they wended their way through the crowd. She turned and waved good-bye and he wiggled his fingers in response. Yeah, he could respect a kid like that.

\---

They'd just returned from their second five-year mission and he was to be reassigned to the Reliant. He hefted his bag onto his shoulder and walked off of the transporter pad into a young woman with long brown hair. She cussed. "Sorry, Ma'am."

"That's alright, Mr. Chekov. All that's bruised is my ego. You know when Daddy's shuttle is supposed to get here?" She was gorgeous, curved in all the right places, feminine, but not flouncy, and she had green eyes that struck him like an arrow.

Where had he seen her before? He tried to think of all the crew members that might have a grown daughter when it occurred to him that Dr. McCoy was one of few who were taking a shuttle down instead of using the transporter. "Ah, Miss McCoy! He will be here in approximately one and one half hours. I am also waiting for Mr. Sulu." Chekov's heart stuck in his throat because if she was as smart as she was beautiful, and he suspected she was by the way the doctor had spoken of her, she'd be ten times the genius everyone claimed he was. "Perhaps we can wait together. There is a café nearby."

"Sure, coffee sounds great." The corner of her mouth went up in a lopsided smile that reminded him of the doctor (only prettier). "You can call me Jo."

"Then you must call me Pavel. It is good to see you again and you must tell me all about university..." As they walked, he could not but help notice how much she'd changed. The first time they met, ten years ago in this same city, she'd been a little girl and he was still just an awkward boy. Now he was a seasoned officer and she was a brilliant and beautiful young woman. She was her own star, bright and warm like Sol, and he felt lucky to be caught in her gravity, if only for a little while.


End file.
